Labour defeats Green leader Polanski in London by-election
publishers 32articles 58first reported 7 Oct, 10:08 UTCdeveloping since 8 Oct · 9 editions
Britain’s governing Labour Party retained the Holborn and St Pancras parliamentary seat in Thursday’s by-election, defeating Green Party leader Zack Polanski.
Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali won 45% of the vote, while Polanski received 33%, according to The Guardian. Reuters and ABC News also reported Labour’s victory. The contest followed the resignation of former prime minister and constituency MP Keir Starmer, whose successor as prime minister, Andy Burnham, had faced an electoral challenge from the Greens on Labour’s left.
Polanski rejected suggestions that the result showed his party was faltering, saying the Greens had tripled their vote share and achieved their second-best by-election result. He said Green members would decide the party’s leadership and insisted he could continue in the role.
The defeat nevertheless intensified scrutiny of Polanski after recent declines in Green support and controversy over a motion adopted at the party’s conference equating Zionism with racism. Polanski did not attend the debate or vote because he was campaigning in the by-election. Former Green leader Caroline Lucas said he should have participated, while Vivien Lichtenstein, leader of the Jewish Greens, called for him to resign.
More in Common polling cited by The Guardian put Polanski’s net approval at minus 28, making him the least popular major UK party leader in that survey. The Greens had previously reached as high as 21% in some polls but were recently polling at about 10% to 11%.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 2 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 48 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- Source articles
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- Given to the writer
- 8, 2 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 7
- This version written
- 48 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
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